The construction of a foldable table is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,212,464. Such tables are inexpensive to manufacture and are readily disposable, and there are numerous uses for such tables. Currently available foldable tables, however, cannot be collapsed to a size having a length and a width less than the length and width of the top of the table. A typical table which is suitable for general use has a top of about 32 inches wide and 55 inches in length and a package for containing a foldable table of the type presently known in the art must be at least as large as the top.
A foldable table or other item of furniture can be manufactured of corrugated cardboard and stored in packages, with one item of furniture to a package, and retained indefinitely in the warehouse of a supplier or of a user. When there is a need for such furniture, the desired number can be withdrawn from storage and sent to the desired location where they can be assembled and used. After use, the furniture can be either disassembled and stored again, or they may be discarded. If it is made of corrugated cardboard, such furniture can be made of recycled products, and the discarded furniture can itself be recycled and, therefore, such furniture is not environmentally harmful.
It is frequently desired to transport such disposable furniture including tables using common carriers. Such common carriers use conveyor belts and the like to transfer goods from a receiving station to a loading station, and from a loading station to a carrier such as an airplane or a railroad car. The conveyors are adapted to transport packages having certain maximum dimensions, and packages within the dimensional limitations are moved by such conveyors and around the curves thereof without damage. However, where the item of furniture is a foldable table suitable for general use, such existing tables require packages the outer dimensions of which exceed the design limits of conveyor systems currently used by common carriers. When a package containing an existing foldable table is placed upon a conveyor for a common carrier, it is typically placed flat upon the conveyor and if the conveyor has a turn during the course of its passage, the table will not negotiate the turn, but will become blocked. Thereafter, other packages will become congested behind the foldable table and they will ultimately force the foldable table around the turn causing the table and its container to become damaged. As a result, common carriers cannot be used to transport foldable tables presently known in the art.
Furthermore, existing items of foldable furniture are packaged in containers which have the general shape of the upper surface of the furniture, and such packages are awkward to handle and can become easily bent or damaged during storage or transportation thereof. It would be desirable to provide a foldable furniture which may be configured as a table, a bench or a cot and which, when disassembled and packaged for storage or delivery, and will have outer dimensions which are substantially less than the dimensions of the upper surfaces of the erected item of furniture.